Having learnt little from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Australia is ready to do Washington's bidding – again.

It seems it doesn't matter which party is in power in Canberra or in Washington, when that call comes from the White House, Australian prime ministers are too eager to wade in.

The word "coalition" is being avoided this time around – Tony Abbott's statement said that Australia would "join international partners" to airlift arms and ammunition to Kurdish forces in the north of Iraq.

This kind of deal invariably is dressed up to look clean enough at first blush. But Abbott's Sunday statement on the arms deliveries revealed the contours of messy dealings – as much in what it did not say as what it said.

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The drops will be made to the breakaway Kurds in the north, not to the armed forces of the Baghdad government. And it seems that the extent of the sovereign Iraqi government's control of the drops might only be as part of a regional committee – the Australian contribution would be "co-ordinated with the government of Iraq and regional countries", Abbott's statement said.

Why wasn't the Iraqi ambassador at Abbott's side, literally in a formal press conference or figuratively in a joint statement?

Prime Minister Tony Abbott and US President Barack Obama meet at the White House in June 2014. Photo: Andrew Meares

It's one thing to be dropping food and water as humanitarian packages. But in announcing that Australia is delivering arms in a region where the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), one of 19 organisations that Canberra lists globally as terrorists, is active, Abbott might have explained what precautions will be taken, if any, to ensure we do not end up arming the PKK.

Washington officials know how to seduce Australian politicians – remember former US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage on Australia as a "global power with a global role and ... global responsibilities".

Reality is more mundane.

Inside the beltway, Australia becomes a "list" country, included among those that Washington quotes in a list of those around the world who are joining it in this or that venture. Remember how the George W Bush "coalition of the willing" in the 2003 invasion of Iraq included the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau and the Solomon Islands?

The Middle East has a constant ability to throw up quagmires – and Iraq especially so.

When Australian forces were there in the aftermath of the 2003 toppling of Saddam Hussein, some complained of their embarrassment at seeing little or no action after the initial US-led invasion. Far from being in combat, the only Australian death in Iraq was the result of a soldier mishandling his pistol - from wounds "irresponsibly self-inflicted" while "disregard[ing] the possible consequences of danger", according to a coronial inquiry.

Most of the Australians were far from the Baghdad cauldron and other hotspots around the country. They were so deeply hidden in the south-west corner of the country that if they took a single step backwards, they would have been in Saudi Arabia.

I'll not be surprised if, at some stage in the future, when documents become unclassified, we find that a deal was done under which Australia signed on for the Bush coalition on the basis that its troops were to remain out of harm's way.

This time around, Australia is interposing itself in a country wracked by civil war – and it seems to be taking sides. Canberra has signed on in circumstances in which it has no control over its own destiny.

You've seen mission creep before? We're already seeing it in this effort – last week, we were the nice guys dropping food and water; this week, we're not so nice because we're dropping weapons.

What next, Tony?

112 comments

Exactly! It's pathetic. This is a great article! Australia should stay out of this one. Has nothing to do with us. Lets fix our own issues.... example, get rid of Tony, chaplains in schools and then increase science and medicine.

Commenter

The Other Guy1

Date and time

August 31, 2014, 1:50PM

Australia, the United States and all imperialist countries (including Russia) should keep right out of Iraq - and Syria, for that matter. ISIS is deliberately trying to drag the US into war in Iraq because it's the only way it can bring the Sunni Muslims in behind it. Any imperalist intervention would be, in effect, a rescue mission for ISIS.

At the moment, ISIS is having its civil administration in Mosul fall apart, while it is alienating the allies with whom it took North-West Iraq. If Iraq and Syria are left alone, the people of those countries will turn on ISIS with a vengeance. This is why ISIS is trying to drag the US in.

If the US wants to be useful, it could twist arms in "Saudi" Arabia and Qatar to cut off the flow of money to ISIS. I won't hold my breath, though.

Commenter

Greg Platt

Location

Brunswick

Date and time

August 31, 2014, 3:39PM

Abbott will do ANYTHING to deflect attention away from the budget and all the other stuff ups and broken promises he has made at home.

Commenter

Mark

Location

melbourne

Date and time

August 31, 2014, 3:45PM

Agreed. Anyone who thinks we should be in Iraq, should be over there, and not on the web site.

Commenter

Go please go

Date and time

August 31, 2014, 4:18PM

Here we are tacitly acknowledging and supporting the emergence of a Kurdish state. The no-fly zones from the Bush1/Iraq1 debacle emboldened Kurdish independence ideas. A decade later and the Bush2/Iraq2 fiasco consequences are now unfolding.

The forthcoming nation of Kurdistan will redraw middle east borders and will want to incorporate Kurd populations from Iran, Turkey and the now non-state of Iraq. With a history going back thousands of years the Kurds are entitled to their identity and independence. The US and its cronies are effectively underwriting a new middle east nation state and that will have consequences that may make the ISIL crisis look benign.

There remains a much needed royal commissions into WMDs, human threshing machines and the whole litany of lies and propaganda that got Australia into this swamp.

A swamp that Tony Abbott seems intent on dragging us even further into. Bipartisanly supported by an inept ALP/Bill Shorterm.

Commenter

rustynails

Location

theburbs

Date and time

August 31, 2014, 1:56PM

@rustynails,

you refer to a 'swamp'. Yes it is. It is necessary to elaborate on this point rather than skip over the inherently barbarous nature of the culture/religion at hand to look for domestic payback for middle east failings. All strategy concerning the West and the Middle East is doomed without being honest about the clash of cultures. It is clear that 'otherness' is real and cannot be bridged through tolerance and self loathing. Western values must be defended or the space is filled by the uncivilised.

Commenter

APM

Date and time

August 31, 2014, 5:14PM

What do we know of Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi (the leader of IS) was he trained by Mosad?

“after several leaders of the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq were killed, he assumed control of it. At that time, the power of the Islamist militancy in Iraq was at its lowest ebb, and the number of killings had plunged. The Sunni rebellion, which it had once spearheaded, was on the verge of collapse.”

Why if he was incarcerated by the US for four years from 2005 do we know so little about him, Why are there only two pictures of him?

He is extremely well funded and equipped. We know from previous experience the US will fund people they subsequently call terrorists.

Commenter

Jake

Date and time

August 31, 2014, 5:19PM

Well it's safest to just let Tony do what the US tells him to. I know that's a big call given the US track record of stupidity in the region. But Tony having any genuine say in world affairs is an extremely scary proposition. Mr baddies v baddies is coming to get you.

Commenter

GOV

Location

Sydney

Date and time

August 31, 2014, 1:56PM

It's clearly in Australia's interests, along with everyone's else's, to limit the spread of ISIS. Why can't the left realize that Australia is not a planet.

Commenter

Matty

Date and time

August 31, 2014, 2:03PM

I'm a lefty and I agree with you Matty, we are not a planet. Unfortunately we are not an independent nation either, one the hand we are constitutionally tied to Britain and on the other we are militarily beholden to the USA. We're good at sport though.

31 Aug
Elite SAS soldiers will fly on the RAAF's Hercules transport planes to provide protection to the crew when they land in coming days in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq to deliver arms and munitions.

31 Aug
The Islamic State presents a unifying threat across the world. What's needed to confront its genocidal agenda is a global coalition using political, humanitarian, economic, law enforcement and intelligence tools to support military force.

1 Sep
Australia's involvement in the conflict raging in northern Iraq is nothing like the intervention in 2003, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said, in a bid to reassure voters after Australia's decade-long conflict in the troubled nation.

1 Sep
Australia does not intend to commit combat troops on the ground in northern Iraq, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said, as the government prepares to deploy aircraft to supply Kurdish fighters with weapons to use against the Islamic State.